NGC Registry Featured Set: Washington Quarters 1965-1998

Erwindoc’s “The Cherry Tree Collection Clad Set” of Washington quarters, 1965-1998, Circulation Issue, contains 17 top-pop coins and is the top-ranked set in the category with several close competitors.

The $29,650 NGC Price Guide value of Erwindoc’s 64 circulation–issue coins—which include no special varieties—reveals the immense and perhaps unexpected value and difficulty in modern clad coinage.

“I think collectors will be surprised by how difficult and expensive these coins can be in the top grades,” erwindoc wrote, adding he spent more than 10 years building the set, which he has just consigned to Great Collections. “I think lots of collectors overlook clad coinage since they see them every day.”

Indeed, it’s the fun of using Washington quarters in everyday life that made these coins one of erwindoc’s favorite collections. The 1976 bicentennial quarter has long been a favorite of Erwindoc as it is also his birth year.

“As a younger collector, I used to save every single one I found!” he wrote.

It would be a logical assumption to look at the massive mintages of Washington quarters 1965-1998 and assume they are common in high grades. The coins were minted by the hundreds of millions, and the combined mintage of just the 1965-1967 quarters, all manufactured at the Philadelphia Mint, was over 4 billion! Even Mint Sets from that time period, most of which notoriously are in the Red Book at current market prices below the original issue price, were produced in quantities ranging from 1997’s low of 950,473 to the high of 1981’s 2,908,145.

However, quality control at the US Mint in the 70s and 80s was not what it is today, and the Mint Set coins were the same coins that would have been shipped to Federal Reserve banks in rolls and bags. And the Mint Set plastic packaging intended to protect these coins actually ended up tarnishing many coins. Remarkably, several issues such as 1971 (pop 6), 1983-D (pop 6), 1988 (pop 13), 1989-D (pop 30), and 1992-D (pop 11) top out in a relatively modest MS 67!

Erwindoc bought the majority of his coins already certified, but was able to submit some raw coins that reached MS 67. “But never any 68s,” Erwindoc wrote. “Those are truly special coins!”

Indeed, MS 68 coins represent only 1.13% of the graded population of 1965-1998 quarters graded by NGC. And of the more than 21,000 coins graded, only 1 has reached the ultra-rarified air of MS 69. Remarkably, many of the 1965-1998 Washington quarters in MS 67 command greater prices than quarters from the 1930s, 40s and 50s in the same grade!

“One simply has to have the patience and opportunity to view these coins and know what to look for in a superior coin,” he wrote. “I think it is absolutely possible to find a raw conditional rarity awaiting grading, but it is getting more difficult every day as more Mint sets are cut up and more rolls are opened up.”

Despite his patience over the last 10 years, there are still a handful of MS 66s in erwindoc’s set. But for two of the years, 1983-D and 1984-D, only 10 coins have graded any higher!

Following the Great Collections sale, second-ranked Sheila Moore will take over the top ranking. Moore’s set contains four top-pop coins designated PL (including the lone 1973-D MS 67 PL top pop) and one quarter in DPL.

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Credit:
2022 Red Book